The modern communications era has brought about a tremendous expansion of wireline and wireless networks. Computer networks, television networks, and telephony networks are experiencing an unprecedented technological expansion, fueled by consumer demand. Wireless and mobile networking technologies have addressed related consumer demands, while providing more flexibility and immediacy of information transfer.
Current and future networking technologies continue to facilitate ease of information transfer and convenience to users. The proliferation of local, regional, and global networks such as the Internet has availed a sea of information to an information hungry society. These networking technologies have expanded to increasingly include wireless and mobile technologies. Through these networks, information can be downloaded to desktop systems, wireless systems, mobile systems, etc. For example, information available via the Internet can now be downloaded onto mobile wireless units, such as cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, etc. One such technology facilitating the transfer of Internet content to and from wireless devices is the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), which integrates the Internet and other networks with wireless network platforms. Generally, WAP is a set of protocols that accounts for characteristics and functionality of both Internet standards and standards for wireless services. It is independent of wireless network standards, and is designed as an open standard. WAP bridges the gap between the wireline Internet paradigm and the wireless domain, to allow wireless device users to enjoy the benefits of the Internet across both platforms.
Second generation wireless service, often referred to as 2G wireless service, is a current wireless service based on circuit-switched technology. 2G systems, such as Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) and Personal Communications Services (PCS), use digital radio technology for improved quality and a broader range of services over first generation mobile technologies. 3G, or third generation, refers to a set of digital technologies that promises improvements in capacity, speed and efficiency by deploying new packet-based transmission methodologies between terminals and the network. Users of 3G devices and networks will have access to multimedia services such as video-on-demand, video conferencing, fast web access and file transfer.
With the introduction of new mobile services such as WAP, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), calendar and contact synchronization, as well as a multitude of other possibilities, the number of servers and portals providing services for mobile Internet terminals continues to expand. Further, there is an increasing number of features associated with these services, such as support for multimedia, location-based services, electronic payments, etc. Thus, new terminals supporting new network technologies and mobile Internet services will continuously be taken into use, often as replacement devices for existing subscribers. The new terminals will increasingly require additional initial configuration settings before they can successfully connect to the servers.
The continual addition of new technologies and services availed to mobile users may, however, create additional burdens on users. For example, setting the initial configuration parameters, generally referred to as “provisioning,” may become increasingly complex and demanding. Further, as these new services and applications continue to roll out, or existing services provide upgrades, configuring or reconfiguring mobile devices becomes a more frequent requirement for end users.
Conventional provisioning systems required that a retail establishment provision the terminal for the user. This, however, is inconvenient for the user. Further, if the user decided to purchase a different terminal or upgrade services, the user was forced to return to the dealer to provision, or re-provision the terminal.
More recent provisioning systems have made it possible to allow the user to initiate provisioning from the device. For example, a user may manually initiate provisioning from the device to be provisioned. This, however, necessitates that the user understand that provisioning is required, and also requires that the user know how to initiate the provisioning, or at the very minimum requires the user to follow a set of instructions to initiate the provisioning. Not only does this inconvenience mobile terminal users, it threatens to frustrate those users who are otherwise unfamiliar with, or otherwise resistant to utilize, high-technology devices.
In other provisioning systems, a remote server device may instigate a communications session with a provisioning server device, and provide the provisioning server with provisioning information. Again, such a system requires an explicit action in order to initiate provisioning of the mobile terminal.
Therefore, the challenge still remains to automate provisioning procedures used to provision terminals. There is a need in the communications industry for a system and method for automating initiation of provisioning procedures for mobile terminals. The present invention provides a solution to these and other shortcomings of the prior art, and offers additional advantages over the prior art.